Enhancing the Value of Census Data Through Data Integration

• Activity Number: 592
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 4, 2011 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: International Association of Survey Statisticians
• Author(s): Frank Yu and Ros Watmuff*+ and Gemma Van Halderen and Graeme Thompson and Jeffrey Wright
• Companies: Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Keywords: Census ; Data linkage ; Datasets ; longitudial

Abstract

To improve the value of the census data for research and analytical purposes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) initiated a Census Data Enhancement (CDE) program in 2006. The program comprises a number of projects aimed at linking the census data, longitudinally, and to other data sources to maximise the value that is derived from combined datasets rather than the individual datasets alone. The datasets are combined using a probabilistic data linking method.

Two applications undertaken provided significant improvements in our understanding of the life expectancies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians , and the settlement outcomes of immigrants to Australia.

A Statistical Longitudinal Census Dataset (SLCD) will be constructed by linking a 5% sample of records from the 2006 Census to the 2011 Census. We discuss the methodology for constucting the SLCD.